Dutch could stay in Afghanistan for another year

(BRUSSELS2) An agreement is in sight within the ruling coalition in the Netherlands on the maintenance of some Dutch participation in the NATO operation in Afghanistan (ISAF) in 2011. The parties in power, which were torn on the issue, would have come to an agreement and this compromise could be endorsed at the Council of Ministers on February 12, selon le daily Elsevier. What is more in line with the strategy American who did surge in Afghanistan, an axiom of their new strategy of reconquest of the territory.
The Dutch who have the lead in the province of Uruzgan had planned to withdraw their troops by the end of 2010.

The principle of troop withdrawal would remain established. But it would simply be spread over time and synchronized with that of the Americans.
This withdrawal would be, in fact, postponed until the summer of 2011 when the first American troops will return to the country. With maintenance on the spot of a force, lighter, whose format remains to be defined. This solution puts an end to an internal controversy.
While the CDA (Christian Democrats) was in favor of an extension of the mandate in Afghanistan, its government ally, the PvDA (Social Democrats) considered that the position of withdrawal should be respected, asking for the start of the return to the country of Dutch soldiers in August to finish in December.

American pressure. THE Americans spared no effort to get the Dutch back on the "right path". The American ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, himself a native of the Netherlands (he only became a naturalized American in 1994) has expressed himself on several occasions in the local media. Recently (before the London conference on Afghanistan), he went on the spot to Kamp Holland, the Dutch base in Uruzgan. And there was extolled, publicly, "the Dutch approach". " The Netherlands has four years of experience in the region. It will not be easy to replace this specific approach” he had thus declared according to our colleagues from Telegraaf. " Moreover, there is no one to take over. The United States did not commit additional troops so that other countries could leave or do less. It would be very surprising if one of the founders of NATO leaves while the others, on the contrary, provide more soldiers. »